Support to IDPs/Expected Returnees in District Kohat

With the start of the conflict in FATA in 2009-10, huge displacement took place in Orakzai and Kurram agencies (FATA), similar to other bordering areas with Afghanistan. Many areas are being cleared by the military and families returned back to their places of origin. However thousands of families still remained in the settled areas of Khyber Pakhtonkhwa like Kohat, DI Khan, Hangu, Peshawar. FDMA (Fata Disaster Management Authority) announced to initiate return process for the IDPs of Orakzai agency from September 2014. JEN decided to support 1,000 families in Kohat District, supported by UNOCHA. The package was designed to fulfill their emergency needs and items which they can carry with ease upon initiation of their return process. The NFI package/family included: Folding bed, Plastic sheet for roof, Bamboo poles and ropes for shelter, Jerry can to bring and store clean drinking water, Solar lamp to provide light during night time when no electricity is available in those rural areas, Plastic mat to use as a carpet to sleep and sit on.

JEN selected UC Jarma and Shahpur for distribution of NFIs. Initially it seemed very difficult to distribute the packages within given time due to security and hardship of the areas, but the efforts of motivated JEN staff were the reason that JEN distributed these packages to 1,000 families. The community is conservative on gender issues. From the start JEN reached out the community elders and mobilized them to the extent that they agreed to allow our female staff to visit the targeted areas. There were FGDs (Group Discussions) conducted prior to selection of beneficiaries to advocate the project aim/objective and the selection criteria. This made the beneficiaries understand the concept and avoidance of any hurdle/trouble from their side in the project activities.

Three distributions took places to cover both the UCs. In total JEN has distributed 373 packages in UC Shahpur and 627 in UC Jerma. The beneficiaries showed immense satisfaction on these items. They argued that these are at least covering some of their immediate needs of shelter, water, light etc. These items are easy to carry and these will not only be utilized during their stay at settled areas but will also be used when they will return to homes.







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